Messaging, New Media • July 8th, 2008

Will McCain catch-up online?

by wispundit

Okay. So there’s roughly five months until the big day for Obama, McCain, and the American people. The candidates are racing to raise money, maintain their images, etc. so that on November 4^th, you will vote for them. One medium that seems like a no-brainer to help accomplish these goals is the internet. Some candidates seem to understand the power of the web, while some just don’t seem to get it. The question I’m asking today is: why hasn’t McCain used the web to reach out to prospective supporters?

YouTube has shown how relatively normal people can be made into celebrities overnight, so why wouldn’t a political candidate want to utilize that resource? Alright, so McCain does have a Facebook page, and a Twitter account and several other social media connections. However, as most Facebook-addicted college students know, it doesn’t matter if you have an account unless people are looking at your page and becoming supporters. Currently, McCain has 162, 420 supporters on Facebook. That may seem like a large number, but remember, Facebook is a global site. Obama on the other hand has 1,112,689 supporters, and that’s just on Facebook.

I wrote about the candidates’ use of Twitter in an earlier post, but that’s really just the tip of the iceberg. Obama has reached out to the online community in almost every possible way. This is going to be incredibly valuable to him in fundraising and in maintaining his image. Obama uses these various forms of social media to drive traffic to his site where people can donate to his campaign, buy merchandise, and even download one of several Obama ringtones. The Obama campaign is doing what is key to social networking; they have integrated all of their services to actively engage their supporters and, in turn, their supporters’ friends, coworkers, grandmas and your wife’s second cousin. McCain’s level of interaction pales in comparison.

The most obvious explanation for McCain’s lack of online success is the 25-year age gap between him and Obama. If most of McCain’s supporters don’t regularly use the web, he may not see that as a valuable endeavor. Though according to the national census in 2007, the majority of the electorate are at least 30 years younger than him, so why wouldn’t he try to court them online?

There are many benefits to having an online presence that any candidate should consider when campaigning. Here are a few:

• Grassroots networking- instead of going door to door, candidates can pay an intern to sit at a computer and interact with millions of people anywhere. Candidates end up with valuable relationships in less time and for less money.

• Fundraising- setting up some way for supporters to donate online is one of the easiest ways to fundraise, as long as candidates have a way to drive traffic to their site.

• Collecting Data- most sites have data collection and analysis built in, and, if not, gathering data that is readily available online is much easier than doing all the work by hand. For an example, check out Facebook insights.

• Personalization- Nothing is easier to personalize than web media. Content can be tweaked and sent out to specific audiences much quicker and cheaper than alternatives. Using social media also allows for a personal connection to people candidates will never meet.

If and when McCain does step-up his online presence, it might give him the boost he needs with the Gen-Y crowd.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 8th, 2008 at 10:37 am and is filed under Messaging, New Media. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.